The Panglossian politics of the geoclique

Abstract

Solar radiation management (SRM) – a form of geoengineering – creates a risk of ‘termination shock’. If SRM were to be stopped abruptly then temperatures could rise very rapidly with catastrophic impacts. Two prominent geoengineering researchers have recently argued that the risk of termination shock could be minimised through the adoption of ‘relatively simple’ policies. This paper shows their arguments to be premised on heroically optimistic assumptions about the prospects for global cooperation and sustained trust in an SRM deployment scenario. The paper argues that worst case scenarios are the right place to start in thinking about the governance of SRM.